BLACK CROWN INITIATE ANNOUNCE NEW ALBUM AND DEBUT NEW TRACK

Pennsylvania metallers Black Crown Initiate return with new album ‘Selves We Cannot Forgive’, set for release on 22 July via Long Branch / SPV, and unveil new track ‘For Red Cloud’.

‘For Red Cloud’ is the first new music released the band since their highly acclaimed debut album Wreckage of Stars in 2014. Guitarist Andy Thomas calls the song “a statement of the psychological enslavement of the modern world, and a tribute to those who resisted being enslaved. We will never become the storm of change that our world needs. Our children will never know what true freedom feels like, and we surely don’t, either.”

Selves We Cannot Forgive’s visually stunning cover art was created by Travis Smith (Opeth, Devin Townsend, Avenged Sevenfold), which can be seen below along with the track-listing. “We’ve been through a great deal as a band since our last release,” says Thomas. “We’ve grown a great deal as writers, players, and people and put everything we had into this one.”

Recorded and mixed by Carson Slovak & Grant McFarland (August Burns Red, Texas In July, From Ashes To New) at Atrium Audio Recording Studio’s in Lancaster PA, ‘Selves We Cannot Forgive’ is the next chapter in BCI’s journey, having further honed their talent to produce inventive and atmospheric metal music. In short it is a focused collection of intelligently crafted songs that strike the perfect balance between fearless adventurousness and methodical might.

Thomas continues on their new release, “we feel it is a more than fitting next chapter for the band; one that we are truly proud and excited to enter. We hope you all enjoy it too. See you on the road!”

The new record follows ‘The Wreckage of Stars’, which together with their self-financed Song of the Crippled Bull EP introduced BCI’s unapologetic exploration of everything from Friedrich Nietzsche and Greek Sophist Gorgias to Hinduism, Buddhism, and indigenous mysticism, with a pragmatic skepticism. ‘The Wreckage of Stars’ in particular propelled the band into the international touring act it is today, hitting the road with the likes of Behemoth, Deicide, Napalm Death, Voivod and more.

Black Crown Initiate have worked their way into the heavy music community’s collective consciousness with steady determination. Like-minded supporters who made the thrilling discovery of songs like “A Great Mistake,” “The Fractured One,” and “Withering Waves” are rewarded in kind by the continued evolution on Selves We Can Not Forgive. Black Crown Initiate continuously prove heavy metal and heavy intelligence don’t have to be mutually exclusive. These men are conjuring an awe inspiring body of work that is as unstoppable as it was inevitable, like existence itself. This is high-minded art delivered with a guttural growl.